SHARON Lintz’s “Groupies,” now play ing the Fringe Festival, is better than you might think it would be. Composed of four short monologues by characters explaining their obsessions, it initially seems yet another rehash of our celebrity-centric culture.

But the playwright has more interesting ideas in mind. Here she uses her name-checked celebs as springboards for alternately disturbing and comical explorations of her characters’ psyches, with each offering a surprising twist.

Not all of the four pieces are effective. The less- compelling ones are “Pearls,” in which an obese woman (Tricia Beyer) describes her idolatry of Elizabeth Taylor — particularly in “Butterfield 8” — while dressing for a night on the town, and “Eminem,” about a young black man (Damion Lee) who takes heat from his friends because his favorite rapper is white.

But the other monologues provide real pleasures. In “Shanghai Express” an elderly man (a superbly creepy Ralph Pochoda) gradually reveals his sexual perversion while rhapsodizing about Marlene Dietrich and the elegant, chain-smoking women of her generation.

And in “Heart-Shaped Box,” a man (Jeff Berg) regales us with his discovery of the image of Kurt Cobain’s face in a most unlikely place.

Under Jonathan Warman’s excellent direction, the four performers do a superb job of bringing these troubled, poignant figures to life.